Sniffing Airlocks since 2010

While stainless steel is widely regarded as the best universal material to fill your brewery, plastic has many benefits and definitely holds it's own for certain applications. Thanks go to genthree (who holds a degree in polymer science we'd like to add) for writing this nice guide on most of the plastics that are readily available.

He wanted us to emphasize that, while not an absolute requirement, a "food-safe" label is still an important thing to look for.

"The quickest way to determine what kind of plastic something is made of is by looking at its recycle code if it has one. The breakdown is below:

RC 1 - polyethylene terepthalate (PET)

Most commonly seen as plastic coke bottles, this is a form of polyester. It has high heat resistance and is an excellent oxygen and moisture barrier, making it excellent for homebrewing. One thing to watch out for, though, is that at high temperatures or sunlight exposure, it can degrade and release potential harmful products like phthalates and heavy metal catalysts.

Good properties for homebrewing, but keep out of sunlight and don't pour extremely hot wort into it. Do not use if it is discolored (yellowed)"

The description states, "You’ll learn how to brew beer. You’ll go step-by-step from buying a few pieces of equipment to boiling your brew to bottling your concoction and finally to enjoying it. It’ll be as easy as 1-2-3.

You can easily learn to brew beer and wow your friends with your ability to make a delicious homebrew. Even more, you’ll be proud of your beer, a delicious brew which will rock your socks. You might even discover that you can make your favorite beer better than the brewery does. Great beer here we come!

By the time you’re done with this book, you’ll be ready to enjoy your first homemade beer."

I didn't check it though, so it could be filled with satanic verses for all I know. It's free either way *shrug*.

Oh, and sorry for the delay in getting new stuff up. Christmas time with the family is getting in the way of hobbies. Stupid family.

When beginning the adventure of homebrewing, you probably brewed a kit or simple recipe and were thrilled when it didn't taste like french kissing a jar of vegemite.

After a few brews under the belt, skills and process tend to improve and the beers get better and better!

If you're like us, brewing to a particular style is bound to become a goal and this is where style descriptors come into play. After all, with the variety of different styles that are available these days, describing them isn't as easy as it used to be. Knowing a handful of colorful descriptors, as well as potential flaws, can really help to improve your homebrew.

What better place to refer to these descriptor and flaw guidelines than the Beer Juge Certification Program (BJCP). The two we look at quite often are the style guildlines PDF and beer faults pages. If you haven't seen them before, they are definitely worth checking out!

It's been along time coming but we've finally added search capability to BrewGeeks!

Look around and you'll notice a search box at the top of most of our pages that will lead right to the article or that long lost blog post you've been looking for. Give it a try and tell us what you think!

p.s. If you're searching for the meaning of life then I suggest you crack a few philosophy books and get off this site... (or drink a homebrew).

We've all been there. You wake up with beer bottles all over and people (including a cop?) asleep on every floor in the house. There are motorcycles in the pool, a monkey in the laundry room, and the Maryland girls volleyball team wants breakfast. Wait, did I lose you?

Okay then, I'll get back to the beer bottles. Let's face it, clean up sucks after a party and the guys at FastRack are promoting a new stackable empty bottle system that can help.

I listed many of the benefits below and we especially like its cleaning and storage aspect for home brewers.

For the Party Host:

Put FastRacks out at a Party

Acts as a magnet for empty beers

No beer smell and easy cleanup the next morning

For the Home Brewer:

Speed up the bottling process (I take it they mean cleaning)

No contact in the bottle = easy clean and drying

Stack for fast and secure storage

For Bars & Resturaunts:

Save up to 150 hours annually

Eliminate fruit flies and bottle breakage

Speed clean up and streamline recycling

To help grow their idea and get your very own FastRack, head over to their site and pledge a few bucks. It looks like $24 get you a FastRack and New FastRack, along with a thank you shout out on their website.

Don't forget to appreciate the failure of prohibition today! Repealday.org reminds us that December 5th marks a return to the rich traditions of craft fermentation and distillation, the legitimacy of the American bartender as a contributor to the culinary arts, and the responsible enjoyment of alcohol as a sacred social custom.

Personally, I'm going to drink 2 extra beers tonight and probably 10 during the Ravens vs Redskins game this weekend!

Thanks to Michael B for sending over a link to this great food pairing chart. It sets guidelines for which styles of beer pair nicely with all kinds of dishes, as well as cheeses and desserts.

I really wanted to put this up as a chart of the week and add it to our charts section, but they have explicitly stated that it cannot be reproduced without the permission of the Brewers Association. They even use the words "intellectual property" which to me means if I did post the PDF they will put some sort of voodoo curse on me that I would of course attribute to bad luck and my life would fall apart.Not taking any chances...